Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brenda Perez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brenda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The very first ever wedding-related painting I made was for my husband. A few months before our wedding, his dad passed away and I wanted to think of a meaningful way to incorporate him into our wedding day. I decided to make a painting of my husband with his parents to gift to him on the morning of our wedding which he opened with his mom and brother. That angel painting led to one of the most beautiful moments of our wedding day, and the pictures of that moment led to friends and family reaching out to me asking to create angel paintings for them as well. After that, I built my skill and confidence to start live painting guest portraits at weddings, so it really was the catalyst moment for me. Even now, I offer all the couples I work with paintings with their loved ones who have passed away and those are always my favorite reactions on wedding day because it is so special to see our loved ones visually represented with us. I truly think it is so impactful to have a tangible reminder of our angels being with us, even if it is just as a painting.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Haha, this is kind of a wild ride into how I actually got started.

I think it’s so funny that I can call myself a professional artist when the only art class I have ever taken in my life was in the seventh grade.

I actually went to college at Old Dominion University for Marine Biology and Oceanography, and got my Master’s at the University of Victoria at Wellington in New Zealand in Marine Conservation. When I came back to the states, I couldn’t find any jobs in my field, so I ended up working at a Genetics lab, which was great but not what I had envisioned for my life. However, when my daughter was born, daycare was going to cost more than half my salary, so I quit my job and stayed at home with her – something I never would’ve pictured for myself before but am so thankful I had the opportunity to do.

I had always been painting as a side hustle and after a while of being a full time stay at home mom, my husband convinced me that it was now or never to take the chance to follow my dream and actually try to make it full-time as an artist.

Now, I get to travel all over the country (and hopefully internationally too!) to help bring some artistic joy to couples’ weddings! I specialize in live watercolor portraits of wedding guests that they can take away on wedding night as their favors. It’s really important to me to capture their true essence in the paintings, rather than just a fashion sketch where all bodies look similar. I also design custom wedding invitations and work closely with couples to figure out what aspects of their wedding they would like to highlight. This year, I introduced collaborative guest books in which I paint the wedding venue on canvas using textured paint and all the guests are invited to add to the painting and make their mark on it for the couple to take home as their guest book. I have so many more ideas that I am so excited about branching out into this year and can’t wait to see them hopefully come to life soon!

I think overall I’m most proud of how my confidence has grown because I dealt with a lot of imposter syndrome when I first started my business, but now I’ve found myself in the position of actually helping other creatives break into this field. I’m also really proud of myself for taking a chance and just going for it because if it hadn’t been for all of the circumstances that placed me where I was, I probably would’ve been stuck in a job that wasn’t giving me as much joy as this is. I always wanted to live a life that my kids and my younger self would be proud of, and even though this isn’t remotely what I planned for or pictured, I truly cannot imagine anything different.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’m going to be honest, at the beginning the main goal was making money doing something that I love. I think that was always something I wanted for my life, hence why I went into Marine Conservation as opposed to ANY other field that would have actually been lucrative. Now, it’s mostly the same but with a bit of nuance; I’m not letting me put myself into a box. I want to let myself branch out and not let my art ONLY be my job, but rather still be my escape. I’m trying to focus more on painting for myself and painting what I want to, not just filling my schedule with work for others. Also, within that goal is the underlying desire to show my kids (and ALL kids, really) that they really CAN do anything they want, even if that means “throwing away” five years of college and grad school. I’m no more a starving artist than I was a starving scientist, and at the end of the day it’s possible to have more than one passion in life, but the dream is being able to actually live them out.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I don’t think it’s necessarily that I didn’t know about this as much as that I didn’t take advantage of this resource earlier, but I wish that I had done some business coaching sooner. I recently (literally just a few weeks ago) signed up for mentoring with a friend I had previously gone to for help in my business. She is not a live artist, which is my main focus, but the advice she gave was so priceless. I recognize that I felt that at the beginning of my journey I wasn’t as financially stable to justify this cost, but after our calls and knowing how much I am benefitting from it now, I definitely could have used this much sooner. I think it’s normal to feel like we can figure it all out ourselves, or that we shouldn’t have to ask anyone for help, but at the end of the day we don’t know what we don’t know and getting guidance from someone who has been doing this for much longer is invaluable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www..wildandbeautifulart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildandbeautifulart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildandbeautifulart
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildandbeautifulart

Image Credits

Evergreen Photo
Tori Presutti Photo
Victoria V Photography
Renee Jean Photography
Debbie Anthony Photo